1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to material delivery systems and methods of metering and delivering a material to one or more units. Particularly, the invention relates to material delivery systems and methods of metering or delivering or controlling one or more materials to one or more units with mixer to sufficiently mix material with activating agent to activate material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some industrial processes, such as fluid catalytic cracking systems, dispense one or more specified amount of a material such as a catalyst(s) or additives to a single FCC unit. FIG. 1 is a simplified schematic of one embodiment of a conventional fluid catalytic cracking system 130. The fluid catalytic cracking system 130 includes a FCC unit 110 coupled to catalyst or additive addition system, etc. 100, oil feed stock source 104, an exhaust system 114 and a distillation system 116. Catalyst from the catalyst addition system 100 and oil from the oil feed stock source 104 are dispensed to the FCC unit 110.
The catalyst addition system 100 may include a main catalyst injector 102 and one or more additive injectors 106. The main catalyst injector 102 and the additive injector 106 are coupled to the FCC unit 110 by a process line 122. A fluid source, such as a blower or air compressor 108, is coupled to the process line 122 and provides pressurized fluid, such as air, that is utilized to carry the various products, such as a catalyst, additive, equilibrium spent catalyst, catalyst fines, etc. from the injectors 102, 106 through the process line 122 where they are combined with oil from the oil feed stock source 104 and dispensed into the FCC unit 110.
Catalyst added to an FCC unit are usually not wetted or activated. In contrast, catalyst added to a biofuel unit is usually wetted or i.e. activated catalyst. Currently, catalyst is wetted by either manually mixing the catalyst batch wise within a bucket, and emptying the bucket into the reactor, or adding the catalyst to a quantity of wetting agent in a stirring tank, where catalyst is agitated or mixed with wetting agent for a period before transferring the wetted catalyst to a reactor. Non-limiting disadvantages of current wetting methods include one or more factors such as inefficiency, safety, and labor intensiveness. For example, manual wetting method requires reactor to be opened to receive the catalyst which is a safety hazard. Non-limiting disadvantages of wetting catalyst in a stirred tank include one or more factors such as inefficient mixing, settling of the catalyst in the stirring tank, thus requiring addition system to be cleaned out frequently.
Therefore, a need exists for an apparatus and method for wetting or activating catalyst and adding such activated catalyst to one or more units.